Two interesting pieces out today. One from Election Projection reviews how far the democrats have fallen since their hay-day:

The Democratic Party once enjoyed a breadth and depth of support that represented a true cross-section of America. Back then, they were arguably the party of the people. Even my parents were registered Democrats well into the ’80s. Over the last few decades, though, the Democratic Party has been undergoing fundamental changes. They’ve moved away from down home American values that kept them in power for generations in Congressional, state, and local politics. The voices and dollars of a new kind of suitor became too enticing.

The post was a response to a Washington Times article that discussed the same “Third Way” study we posted on previously.

“As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats — the self-described party of the middle class — who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich,” the report says.

Although Mr. Bush’s popular-vote margin of victory over Sen. John Kerry in 2004 was less than three percentage points, the Massachusetts Democrat lost the middle class — defined by the report as voters living in households with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 — by six percentage points. Among white middle-class voters, the gap was 22 percentage points.
Voters from middle-class households made up 45 percent of the electorate last year

Both are must reads.